Tag: frisbee golf

We plan to spend the next few weeks and months looking over the data from the 2018 State of Disc Golf Survey and sharing the information with the public through this blog. To kick things off, let’s take a look at who participated in the survey this year. First of all, there were 6,194 survey participants. That is down from last year’s participation, but still represents a large cross-section of players from many locations. Here are the top ten states in the USA in terms of survey participation:

There were also several other countries represented with the Scandanavian countries outpacing others.

We were surprised to see Utah hit the #10 spot since it is the home state for Infinite Discs. We admit that we’re happy that our home crowd made their voices heard. That brings up the question, how did survey participants find out about the survey? Here is where they said that they heard about the survey:

That is a full 50% of survey participants coming from Facebook, with another 34.2% coming from either the Infinite Discs website or email newsletter. Other contributing sources were social media sites like Reddit, Instagram, Twitter, DGCourseReview.com, Instagram, as well as from notifications from the PDGA.

Other interesting demographics from the survey are the male vs. female participation, the age of participants, marital status, and employment status. The biggest gap was between males, making up 94% of participants, while the females made up only 6% of those who took the survey.

The majority of survey participants are also married or in a domestic partnership at 59.4% with 35.6% being single and 5% answering as widowed, divorced, or separated.

Here is the age spread from the survey participants:

We’re excited to see a wide age spread participating in the survey and in the sport of disc golf. We’re also happy to see that disc golf is becoming a popular activity even among those over fifty with survey participants reaching well into their sixties, seventies and a few in their eighties. We’re hoping to see more growth among a younger, teenage crowd, bringing up the next generation of exciting professional and recreational players.

Infinite Discs has now completed the 2018 State of Disc Gold Survey, and that means we have some prizes to send out. These prizes were donated by some great brand sponsors, who we would like to thank once again for contributing to the success of the survey.

This year’s survey had 5,930 responding participants, so we have a lot of fun data to use as we share those results with the disc golf community in the coming weeks and months. We gave away a couple of prizes while the survey was in progress, to encourage participation.

THANKS AGAIN to these QUALITY BRANDS that donated prizes!

PRIZES and WINNERS!

We’d like to thank the disc golf manufacturers that contributed prizes to the State of Disc Golf 2018 Survey. If you haven’t had a chance to take the survey yet, please do so. That way you can share your voice about the game of disc golf and quality yourself for the prize drawings at the completion of the survey. You can go directly to the survey HERE.

These are the prize contributors that have helped Infinite Discs to promote the survey:

WHO WINS?

Some of the prizes provided will be given away while the survey is in progress, encouraging more participation from the disc golf community. FOLLOW INFINITE DISCS ON FACEBOOK for your best chance to win those prizes as the survey continues.

After the 2018 survey is complete and it is closed, we will do a random drawing of the participants to select the winners for the remaining prizes. We contact the winners through email, so be sure to include a valid email in the survey in case you win one of the prizes.

Thanks for participating in the survey, and thanks to the quality disc golf brands for providing excellent prize support!

Here at Infinite Discs, we’ve had a lot of fun with disc stamps over the last couple of years. We’ve presented a huge variety of styles and artistic approaches. A couple have become standards that we keep bringing back, like the Infinite Bomber stamp which has been a hit in several configurations. The Infinite Discs Aztec stamp was the first “Stamp Wars” winner, though it only had to beat out the Tommy Cat design for that first Stamp Wars title. But that Aztec design became very popular during the 2017 year and was offered on many brands and molds.

The Infinite Discs VIP Club was a fun program initiated in 2016 with a goal to present a variety of artistically interesting stamps on great discs. Since the inception of the VIP Club, over twenty stamps have been presented on a variety of disc brands and plastics. The members of the club tend to be made up of players who appreciate unique and interesting images on the latest discs. But even among them, it has been very interesting to see the responses to different stamps. Sometimes we worry as we’re mailing out the discs that a new stamp approach won’t be popular, but inevitably we get feedback from members declaring that it is their new favorite. The club members often end up trading and selling back-and-forth, based on their differing stamp tastes.

DIFFERENT STAMPS FOR DIFFERENT TASTES

Infinite Discs has also presented a lot of custom stamps on new release discs, as well as on entire brands, or across multiple brands. Those stamps are added to our online store for anybody who wants them. Some were sleepers, while others were instant hits. But once again, it became instantly apparent that, when it comes to stamps, every person has their own taste. One person’s “most amazing stamp ever” is another person’s “most hideous stamp.” Even within the walls of the Infinite Discs headquarters, tastes in stamps vary greatly. Some prefer minimal, others prefer heavy detail, and so it goes.

GOOD FOR A LAUGH

The joke stamps have been some of the most fun, and obviously the most controversial, criticized, hated, and absolutely loved stamps we’ve put out so far. Whenever an idea comes up as a joke, then makes it to a disc, we’re a little nervous about who will “get it” and who will simply write us off as a bunch of tasteless idiots. Well, we see both sides among the forums and fan groups, but usually the number of people who “get it” is large enough to scoop up the discs from the store.

When we released our series that started off with the Firebread stamp on Firebird discs, we were amazed how well they sold. It was a very simple design put together by Kesler who works at Infinite Discs. It was a loaf of bread with flames on it, in a minimal line art style. So, we followed up with the next two in the series, the Thunderbread (on Thunderbirds) with lightening bolts coming out of a loaf of bread, and the Teabread (on Teebirds) with a cup of tea next to the loaf of bread. Suddenly we had a hit trilogy and even ordered a follow-up run of discs with those stamps because the response was so positive…at least in terms of sales. Meanwhile, some of the feedback online was negative, saying things like “worst stamp ever” or “how could they ruin such a good disc!”

After such an unexpected hit, we followed up with a Thanksgiving disc called “Firebird” which was…well…on Firebirds. But it was a cooked turkey in the same style as the bread series, with flames on it. That one didn’t go over quite as well, probably because it felt more seasonal, and the joke was old at that point. Oh well. It was still fun to throw it out there.

Another joke stamp recently released was the “Beware the Foxbat” stamp which was presented on Foxbat discs. It was basically a dog with a fox tale and bat wings. Duh. It wasn’t supposed to be scary, or impressive, or realistic, or convincing. After all, we’re talking about a foxbat. Who even knows what that is? Apparently it is a Ukrainian aircraft? Maybe an animal? Maybe not? But now it is a dog-like, fox-like, bat-like creature on a disc. Why? Well…why not? Immediately there was an outcry on disc collector groups, thinking that Infinite Discs had once again hit a new low in stamp design, while here at headquarters, employees were musing at how many Foxbats we were suddenly shipping out to customers. After all, this isn’t exactly a top-selling disc. But those sales figures are now on the rise.

Other joke stamp ideas didn’t make it to the discs. At least not yet. For example, we came up with a concept for a stamp featuring Kim Jong Un of North Korea smiling for a selfie with his arm around a missile. We were going to put that one on a run of Discraft Nukes. Another idea that made it through the art stage, but not to the disc was a great version of the Dynamic Discs Justice stamp that simply added space between a couple of letters to change the meaning to “just ice”. Of course, ice cubes were a must.

Yes, we can be strange. Some people get it. Some people don’t.

STAMP WARS

Aside from the jokes, the serious stamps, the spooky stamps, and the simply strange stamps, we decided that all of our customer should have a chance to submit their own ideas as stamp designs. That is why we introduced the 2018 Stamp Wars contest as a way for anybody to introduce a stamp design for voting. After three rounds of voting, the 20+ submitted designs were narrowed down to a field of four stamps. Those final four stamps are being presented on equal runs of discs from both Trilogy and Innova. Whichever sells the fastest will be the top winner.

We were thrilled with the number of cool submissions to the Stamp Wars contest. There is a lot of talent out there. Once again, the stamps ran the gamut as far as style goes. There were some of the typical monsters and skulls, but also some truly creative and unique stamp concepts. Some didn’t make it far in the voting, perhaps because they didn’t have the necessary appeal to the disc golf market, but we still loved some of those eventual losers. We may find ways to work at some degree with those artists who didn’t make it to the final four. Why not strive to incorporate as many artists and ideas as possible when it comes to presenting stamps to the public? We keep an open mind when it comes to art. The only things we try to exclude are those ideas that are generally seen as tasteless or insulting.

Watch for the Stamp Wars “final four” stamps to hit the Infinite Discs inventory in the beginning of February. Then watch for the winner to make appearances throughout the 2018 season.

WHO CARES ABOUT STAMPS?

Why all these stamps anyway? Well, Infinite Discs is in the business of selling discs, and we are also disc golfers. When it comes to selecting our discs, oddly enough, the way those discs look often comes into consideration. We have come to accept and embrace a simple fact: Even though we’re selling discs that are meant to be thrown around in a game, the throwers are all individuals who like to express that individuality with the images on their discs. Whether the clean text of a stock stamp, the chaos of misprints and x-outs, the intricate design from an artist, a full-color image on Vibram rubber, or the silliness of an office joke, everybody has a preferred style. So, Infinite Discs wants to bring the largest variety of stamp styles, images, and tastes to our inventory for ALL players. We don’t ask that every person like every stamp, because that will NEVER happen. But we hope that among a huge selection of tens of thousands of individually photographed discs, you’ll find some that really appeal to you. Enjoy!

We’ve been tracking putters sales all through the year 2017, curious to see which would rise to the top by the end of the year. The early lead by the Discmania P2 simply gained momentum as the year went on. The results are in, and these are the top 20 best-selling putt-and-approach discs at INFINITE DISCS.

LOOK AT THE SPREAD

That list of top-20 features a lot of great putters. But perhaps the most interesting statistic about that list is the huge disparity between #1 and #20 in terms of numbers sold. The #20 Shield putter sold less than one tenth the number of the #1 P2 putter! The P2 also sold more than the #3 Judge and #4 Nova combined!

WHICH P2 PLASTIC SOLD THE MOST?

The top-selling putter, the Discsmania P2, is popular in several plastics. Here are the plastic types ranked in order by most popular in terms of sales at Infinite Discs in 2017:

Infinite Discs just got a limited supply of cool, collectible Deuce Squad stamped discs. They are available only while supplies last, so here is a run-down of the discs we got in the shipment, then an explanation of how to use the Advanced Disc Search button to find them quickly:

DYNAMIC DISCS

DISCMANIA

DISCRAFT

AXIOM

An easy way to search for special stamps…

If you want to know how to find these, or any other specific stamps on the Infinite Discs website, you can use the ADVANCED DISC SEARCH which is a button on the top of the website.

Once you enter the Advanced Search screen, you can search for specific discs using all kinds of criteria. You can select brand, disc type, plastic type, etc. But in our case, let’s assume you want to see all of the Deuce Squad stamped discs. Simply check the “Stamp” box. That will open another window where you can select the stamp name that you want. Then click the “View Individual Discs” button and browse through all the discs still in our inventory, page by page. Here is an example of a Deuce Squad stamp search.

Then you can browse results and add the ones you like to your shopping cart.

Use this search method for all kinds of stamps, disc colors, weights, plastic types, brands, flight patterns, etc. This is one of the most valuable disc search tools on the Infinite Discs website.

The Infinite Discs VIP Club has been active since May of 2016. As of December 2017, the club had released 20 special edition, monthly discs, plus several club-only limited editions through the VIP Club Store. It has been a fun ride and the support for the VIP Club has grown as we’ve worked out new features and benefits to the members. If you have not heard of the VIP Club, it is a “disc-of-the-month” club designed for adventurous disc golf players and collectors. You can see the original introduction to the VIP Club HERE.

We want to take a look forward at what to expect in 2018, without spoiling the surprise of the monthly featured discs. But first, here is a list of what has been released so far:

Infinite Discs VIP Club
Releases to Date

#1 May 2016 – Titanium Undertaker by Discraft (quantity manufactured = 500)This was the first run of the Undertaker in Titanium (TI) plastic and the silver color was run for the VIP Club.

#2 -June 2016 – DyeMax Defender by Dynamic Discs (quantity manufactured = 300)The Defender was a new, overstable, high-speed driver at the time of this release, so we wanted to feature a cool, full-color Dyemax edition for the VIP Club.

#3 -July 2016 – Tournament Destiny by Westside Discs (quantity manufactured = 300)This was a special order of black discs. Some were more swirly grey, but until this run, there were no black Destiny’s.

#4 -August 2016 – 750 A4 by Prodigy (quantity manufactured = 300)This was the first run of the A4 in 750 Plastic.

#5 – September 2016 – Metal Flake C-Line FD “Jackal” by Discmania (quantity manufactured = 300)Metal Flake C-Line FD’s were hard to find at the time we put this disc out. Since then Discmania has restocked only a few FD’s in Metal Flake C-Line.

#6 – October 2016 – X-Link Glow Vamp by Vibram (quantity manufactured = 300)This was specially-manufactured for the VIP Club with edge-to-edge glow (solid glow disc) which had not been done with a Vamp before.

#7 – November 2016 – Proton Matrix by MVP (quantity manufactured = 300)At the time of this release, the Matrix had been featured as an MVP Circuit disc, so we released the VIP edition before the general market release of the Matrix.

#8.1 – December 2016 – Green Peppermint Scented Strata TUI by RPM Discs (quantity manufactured = 400)RPM had never attempted anything like scented plastic before, and they were willing to give it a try exclusively for the VIP Club. The Green Tui featured a stamp with Mr. Caribou.

#8.2 – December 2016 – Red Peppermint Scented Strata TUI by RPM Discs (quantity manufactured = 400)RPM had never attempted anything like scented plastic before, and they were willing to give it a try exclusively for the VIP Club. The red TUI featured Mrs Caribou.

#9 – January 2017 – Plasma Insanity by Axiom (quantity manufactured = 400)We special-ordered half of the Plasma Insanity to be run in black plastic, and the other half in white plastic because both colors were hard to find in Plasma.

#10 – February 2017 – Atomic Kahu by RPM Discs (quantity manufactured = 400)RPM made a special run of gold Kahu’s for the club and they attempted their first 2-color stamping for the VIP design. They worked out beautifully.

#11 – March 2017 – Swirly (Transitional) Icon Ghost by Legacy (quantity manufactured = 400)Legacy was attempting their first “swirly” discs and called it “Transitional Icon” at the time. Since the VIP edition Ghost, they’ve made other Swirly Icon discs.

#12 – April 2017 – Armor Tyrant by Reptilian Disc Golf (quantity manufactured = 400)This was the second run of Tyrants in a darker plastic, and it turned out more straight-flying than the original, overstable Tyrant.

(note: Scheduled discs were switched in March and April, and series number printed on the Tyrant and Ghost did not match up with shipping months.)

#13 – May 2017 – S-Line CD3 by Discmania (quantity manufactured = 400)The CD3 had not been released to the public in S-Line plastic at the time of this release. Discmania made it available to the VIP Club before the general market.

#14 – June 2017 – Swirly Frontline Mortar by Hyzerbomb (quantity manufactured = 400)The Mortar had not yet been released in Swirly Frontline plastic (the equivalent of Innova’s Swirly Star), so Hyzerbomb made it especially for the VIP Club.

#15 – July 2017 – Star Aviar3 by Innova (quantity manufactured = 400)Innova had started offering XXL stamping and allowed us to run a limited edition Aviar3 with an XXL (oversized) stamp for the VIP Club.

#16 – August 2017 – Z-Glo Punisher by Discraft (quantity manufactured = 400 with VIP stamp + 100 with Aztec stamp)The Punisher has not been released on Z-Glo plastic yet. This VIP edition was the first run on Z-Glo plastic. An extra 100 Aztec-stamped discs were made as budget extras for the VIP Store, where they were much less expensive than typical Z-Glo.

#17 – September 2017 – Sublime ALPHA by Mint Discs (quantity manufactured = 400)The Alpha was such a popular new disc from a new company that they had to make a 2nd run much sooner than expected, so the VIP Club edition was part of that 2nd run of the disc, with a special stamp.

#18 – October 2017 – K1 Line FALK by Kastaplast (quantity manufactured = 400)The Falk was a new driver by Kastaplast in 2017 and as soon as it was released, we arranged with Kastaplast to make a special run, including a couple of different colors, for the VIP Club. This was the first VIP Club featured disc where we featured a version of the stock stamp with an added Falcon logo graphic.

#19 – November 2017 – Opto-G ZION by Latitude 64 (quantity manufactured = 400)Latitude 64 introduced their “Opto-G” overmold discs in 2017 and we acted early to get in on the first run of the Zion driver, including our own VIP Edition stamp.

#20 – December 2017 – 400S Special Edition X4 by Prodigy (quantity manufactured = 500)After meeting personally with the Prodigy crew, we arranged to have a special run of X4 distance drivers made with a lot of special effects and color varieties in the plastic, plus a beautiful stamp. They were serious eye candy, and great to throw.

NEW VIP FEATURES FOR 2018

THE STORE:The first big change for 2018 was the migration of the VIP Club Store from a secret website onto the Infinite Discs main website. Now the VIP Club Store can be browsed and shopped by the club members at the same time they shop our huge, general disc inventory. The VIP Club Store features listings for any remaining discs from the monthly features, plus other limited edition discs and prototypes. Some of those special editions are offered exclusively to the VIP’s and sometimes they are listed FIRST to the VIP’s before moving to the general website. This portion of the website can only be accessed by the current club members after logging in.

The selection of discs in the VIP Club Store was very small while we explored this feature, but we plan to grow the selection of limited editions and early access discs in 2018 so that it becomes a valuable hangout for VIP members who love to collect and try new discs.

DISC TESTERS: As mentioned above, the VIP Club Store will feature prototype discs from time to time. These will be early editions (testing runs and first runs) of new discs that are entering the market. We plan to use the VIP Club members as part of a team of disc testers in 2018.

MEMBER DISCOUNTS: The members of the VIP Club now have permanent discounts on the Infinite Discs website for all of their disc purchases. Plus, no shipping is added on the discs purchased from the VIP Club Store section of the website (it is added normally for other, non-club discs). So, as long as the club member is logged in, they’ll get discounts on their orders, for as long as they remain a member of the club!

Let’s End With Some Photos

VIP Club members are currently part of a Facebook community where they love to exchange photos of discs, set up disc trades, and chat about the thing they love– disc golf. So, let’s wrap up with a gallery of photos as shared in the Facebook VIP Club group:

Yeah, we could go on, and on, and on, and on…

The third round of voting for Stamp Wars 2018 is underway. Nine designs remain. The top four from this round WILL be stamped on hundreds of discs, plus each winner will receive a $100 gift card! You can vote for your favorite four stamps. Ready, go!